After early surge, ABS market mellows down to a $13 billion week in deals

Despite the fact that much of the asset securitization market was overseas for the Investment Management Network's conference in Barcelona, Spain, enough of the market showed up to price nearly $13 billion in primary issuance last week.

The equipment sector made an appearance, with the $790 million John Deere Owner Trust transaction. Deutsche Bank acted as lead manager on the deal, whose four tranches were pegged off of Libor, EDSF and swaps, but did not offer much depth in pricing. The one-year tranche priced at three basis points under EDSF, while the most opportunity for spread pickup was in the three and one-half year tranche, which priced at just three basis points over swaps.

"No one is really winning there," one trader said.

Another pricey-looking deal whose pricing came in under benchmarks, Wachovia Securities' Wachovia Auto Owner Trust, came to market. The $1.3 billion deal saw its very top tranche price at four points below Libor, while the three-year tranche came in at two basis points over swaps.

Countrywide Securities had a very busy week, and was involved in more than $3.4 billion in home equity ABS issuance that priced, and had another $1.5 billion in the market. On the Countrywide Asset-Backed Certificates 2006-9 transaction, maturities ranged from one to seven years. A one-year tranche on that deal priced at four basis points over the one-month Libor. The most junior five-year tranche priced at 250 basis points over.

Indymac INDB Mortgage Loan Trust priced a $389 million home equity transaction, via Goldman Sachs, and was prepping another transaction, worth $229 million. The bank placed several tranches with maturities of longer than 11 years in the market. One triple-A rated piece with a maturity over 26 years came in at 25 basis points over the one-month Libor. Meanwhile, triple-B rated notes with a maturity of just under four years priced at 215 basis points over the same benchmark.

Argent Securities came to market with a $2.9 billion home equity loan deal. Merrill Lynch acted as structuring lead manager on the deal, with Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank also acting as co-leads. Several large tranches on the deal were not offered to investors, but a nearly seven-year tranche priced at 24 basis points over the one-month Libor, while the most junior tranche came in at 210 basis points over. The investment bank acted as lead manager on another home equity transaction, a $770 million deal from Ownit Mortgage Loan Asset-Backed Certificates. In terms of dollar amount, the largest and smallest portions of that transaction were not offered, but sandwiched in between were tranches that ranged in yield from 30 basis points to 46 basis points over the one-month Libor.

The Popular ABS Mortgage Pass-Through Trust priced a $295 million home equity loan transaction lead managed by RBS Greenwich Capital. It offered investors five points over the one-month Libor on the most senior piece, with yield pickup of 200 basis points over the benchmark on the double-B rated junior tranche.